The New Shop, India’s smartest 24-hour convenience store chain, has successfully opened its 41st store at Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. This transit retail store is also the brand’s first airport flagship store, which was inaugurated by Mr. Suresh Chandra Hota IAP, Chief Airport Officer, Adani Lucknow International Airport Ltd, on December 07, 2021. Mr. Hota graced the occasion to show his support towards the young startup and said, “In our effort to provide excellent customer experience, we had been looking for something unique. The New Shop, which is an endeavor towards Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, is an inspiration for self-reliance with its attractive offerings at competitive prices. I am sure it will not only enhance customer experience but also help inspire our customers to support the ‘Make in India’ movement.” The New Shop will soon be opening stores at other Adani airports as well.
With the most diverse mix of products, the transit store in Lucknow is suitable for both Indian and international consumers. The New Shop is a purely homegrown brand, which renders it as the poster child of the ‘Make in India’ campaign, it takes pride in advocating other homegrown brands, much like itself. Domestic & stylish brands such as boAt, epigamia and WOW Skin Science, are a common sight at every The New Shop store. Anshuman Bharadwaj, Head of Commercial at Adani Lucknow International Airport Ltd. stated, “TNS is creating an ecosystem that will allow Indian companies to be highly competitive on the global stage. A home-grown, retail tech startup, that is not only neck and neck with its international competitors but one that also supports the bigger goal at hand, by including other indigenous brands at all their stores and creating employment opportunities, made The New Shop a clear choice to be brought on board at the Lucknow Airport. We’re looking forward to great things coming out of this collaboration.”
The New Shop is the brainchild of Founders Aastha Almast, Charak Almast, and Mani Dev Gyawali, who started out this journey in 2019, after successfully having created a global consumer products sourcing and private labeling business Productx Ventures. When asked about the inspiration behind The New Shop, Aastha says, “We wanted to be the first Indian-bred, 24-hour convenience store within every Indian’s walking distance along with providing instant hyperlocal doorstep deliveries. We are deeply humbled and grateful to be partnering with Adani Airports, and to be working collectively towards our common mission of contributing to India’s growth story, by standardising retail offerings at all mass transit hubs across India. We are committed to providing an augmented retail experience and convenience to all citizens of the country.”
With an in-built real time cloud based inventory management system, an e-commerce-like POS for quick checkouts and heavily streamlined backend tech and data support, The New Shop has managed to reduce pilferage to 0.8% – an unheard of figure, in the Indian Retail industry, alongside managing completely up to date inventory lists, to minimise wastage. The New Shop is now among the first few companies to be soon reaching a negative working capital and already has the industry’s best Gross Margins in the Retail sector.
The New Shop started operations from Delhi NCR, at major transit hubs such as railway stations (Anand Vihar Railway station), and highways. It has since seen unprecedented growth, by capturing important strategic locations across the capital, and has over 40 stores within NCR. With a majority of stores in residential areas, The New Shop aims to have an exponential expansion by 2025 with over 1,000+ stores. The New Shop has begun operations in 5 cities – Delhi NCR, Indore, Lucknow, Ahmedabad and most recently, Bangalore.
With solid expansion plans in place, The New Shop intends to become a household name, and conquer the otherwise unexplored convenience retail space in India. As their initial investor, the original Shark from Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington puts it, “In the USA, there is 1 convenience store for every 2,000 people. When I came to India, I was surprised that there is no pan India 7Eleven counterpart, considering India has the youngest population in the world.” With only 9% penetration in this space, The New Shop will soon become the one-stop solution and a market leader in the space. The New Shop’s aggressive expansion is a result of its rapidly forming real estate partnerships with highway authorities, airports, railway stations, metro stations and fuel stations across various cities in India. This is in line with their vision statement to standardize the supply of quality and affordable convenience retail items to all the citizens of India.
The New Shop believes that an omni-channel delivery strategy is the future of convenience retail space; it has thus partnered with Zomato, Shadowfax, Wefast and other hyperlocal delivery services, to ensure that everyday essentials reach consumers within 30 minutes or less. To that end, The New Shop will also be launching a mobile application and its own delivery fleet, to make ordering daily essentials, groceries, hot food, live cafe items prepared in real time at the stores, and beverages, only a few taps away, available 24/7. By offering such quick convenience at affordable prices, The New Shop aims to transform the overall Indian consumer experience and quite literally spoil consumers for choice.